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By Stella Nyanzi
Growing up as a youth within the HIV/AIDS era must be tougher than it was before the advent of the epidemic. What with watching your friends get ill, suffer through bodily pain, social stigma, or self-induced shame and isolation? Feelings of despair and frustration as the body succumbs to different opportunistic infections, must induce a fear in the observers - whether from a distance, or nearby as carers. The mockery of looking too old, or too thin to be one's own age stares adolescents infected with HIV as they progress on to AIDS. Missing school due to illness can sometimes lead to failing examinations. Whispers, gossip, rumours, bad-mouthing, back-biting and banter from other ignorant young people must hurt, especially if they were formerly one's chat-mates. If one is not a sufferer, they can learn a lot from the experiences of youths who have gone through the processes of having HIV and AIDS.
Explaining to society: adults, moralists, health workers, religious leaders, policy makers, etc how 'one so young' got the HIV can be a daunting task in itself. 'How dare you have illicit sex?' they seem to demand, because to many of them, sex is supposed to be only consumed within marriage. They forget very fast the passion of youth, when desire and experimentation drove them along the path that sexually active youths trudge. They say, 'Don't do it!' And yet they themselves do it left, right and centre. They say, 'Thou shalt not commit fornication!' And yet they themselves are adulterers. They say, 'Africans are not gay!' And yet the kings and royalty in our lands have been known to be homoerotic. They say, 'Be wise, use condoms!' And yet they have unplanned pregnancies which they later abort. Teachers teach us to abstain from sex until marriage. And yet these same teachers pressure their students to offer sexual services as a bargain for good grades in exams. Fathers tell us to be exemplary and keep away from premarital sexual activity. But huh, our fathers have sex with housemaids, who are among the long list of outside wives. Policemen tell us to keep the law. But they force themselves on sex workers rounded up in the nightclubs. They even take bribes to drop charges against sugar daddies who pursue sexual encounters with younger partners. Doctors deal with AIDS patients, but they also sleep with their nurses. The conflicting messages that youths receive today cause more chaos than give guidance. 'Practice what I preach, not what I do,' adults who should be at the helm of passing on social knowledge seem to say.
Policy makers and programme implementers are not any better. First they say, 'Abstain!' As youths try hard to keep aware from the allure of the forbidden fruit of sex, the same leaders say, 'Have a condom, be wise!' So youths hear, 'Abstain,' and 'Use condoms!' And then they hear 'Be faithful to your partner!' 'Disclose your status and be faithful!' Admittedly it is presented as choices, that progress in linear fashion: A for Abstain, B for Be faithful, C for condom use, and D for Disclose your sero-status. However these policy and programme developers ignore the irrational thrill of youth, the erratic character of the erotic, and the pure bliss of sex - especially when it is enjoyed against all odds! Many youths get confused by these mixed messages, prefer not to work within the model of options, or choose to dwell on the opposing messages aimed at them.
Financing of sexual health initiatives can also be confusing for young people. After one has abstained for a long virginal period, they become sexually active and resort to using available condoms. Suddenly, a change in the politics of provisioning for reproductive health programmes means a sharp cut in financing condom production or importation. Suddenly, the condoms are either too expensive to afford, or no longer available in the outlets and shops. Meanwhile, the new sexual relationship does not die a similar death, but bursts into a new bud. The young lovers notice they need more sexual fulfilment. And yet there are no condoms in the shops! Or in some countries of Africa, when the big men like presidents, chiefs, and bishops play politics, they play it dirty: when Clinton says, 'Condoms, they sign a treaty for mass provision of condoms.' And then when Bush says, 'No, no more condoms!' They sign another treaty for 'No condoms.' Puppets of global politics of health who do not really think about the consequences for the youths they rule over.
Socialisation is a process of learning about they way one's society makes meaning of life, the things they value, the way they perform daily rituals and the meanings they attach to them. It is about learning what is right and what is wrong, according to the society that one leaves in. Sometimes it is overt instruction. Other times it is learning by induction or emulating the example of others. It can also be through rewards and punishments. When one does good, they are acclaimed. When they transgress, they are punished. HIV and AIDS have become vehicles of socialisation, both as metaphors and realities. Young people in Africa today learn a lot about sex by attending burial ceremonies, seeing sick people in hospitals, attending mass education campaigns, listening to different media preach about good or bad sex - usually in relation to HIV and AIDS. Long before a child has reached the grade in school where the reproductive system is taught, they have had numerous opportunities to hear about sex from friends, siblings, parents, village leaders, health workers, community educators, the media, etc. While HIV/AIDS freed up the conversations and education about sex and sexuality in many spaces, it also introduced an over-emphasis on the relationship between the sexual terrain and health or illness. It is difficult for many youths to dissociate their understandings of sexuality from the local conversations about disease and health. And many times it is confusing for them because the messages can be contradictory, meaningless, or fear-inducing. It is important to take stock of these factors and the implications they might have on the sexual behaviour or young people.
* Stella Nyanzi is a Research student at the Health Policy Unit, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
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